Author: Sean O'Connell Page 6

At some point during the process of adapting James Bradley's nonfiction book about the battle of Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood decided he'd need two movies to adequately manage the material's scope. The first, Flags of...

Like a politician riding the campaign trail, Barry Levinson's Man of the Year talks out of both sides of its mouth by promising one thing but delivering another. Ad materials suggest an irreverent Robin Williams...

Wanna know why sports movies are criticized for being too cliché? Because sports, as a whole, are too cliché. We've been trained to root for the underdog, though it's conventional when that come-from-behind victory is...

Who killed Superman?George Reeves' death remains one of Hollywood's juiciest unsolved mysteries. After years spent clinging to the industry's fringe, the performer shot to stardom in 1952 when he hopped into Superman's red-and-blue tights for...

Much like Top Gun and, to a lesser extent, An Officer and a Gentleman, Andrew Davis' boys-in-basic-training melodrama The Guardian primarily functions as a recruitment tool for its chosen military branch. The Coast Guard would...

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's Project Greenlight, a reality program designed to give first-time film makers an unprecedented shot at their dream, won a few battles but ultimately lost its war.Over the course of three...

Airplanes parked on runways aren't very exciting. Sure, the motionless crafts contain the components necessary for flight, but they only achieve their fullest potential when they leave the ground and soar through the skies.The same...

Following the disappointing 1975 season that saw the team finishing 4-10, the Philadelphia Eagles needed assistance and weren't picky about where the help would come from. In a move characterized as part desperation, part publicity...

The animals populating Steve Oedekerk's Barnyard: The Original Party Animals remind me of the plastic Little People figurines with which my two-year-old plays. The cows wear snap-on noses and hold objects in synthetically smooth velvet...

You can learn a lot about Michael Mann's updated Miami Vice by listening to Glenn Frey. It's true. Many questions surrounding this remake are answered using the lyrics to Frey's prophetic "Smuggler's Blues," a song...

The ants bustling through the colony refer to Lucas (Zach Tyler) as "The Destroyer." The nickname is well-deserved. Because he is picked on by the neighborhood bully, the pint-sized Lucas vents his frustrations on someone...

Entertainment gossip trackers shamelessly debate an actor's chosen sexuality in much the same way that baseball fans discuss a player's stats. Is he gay? Is she bisexual? Some even make broad assumptions that everyone in...

The horrors of September 11, 2001, have been well documented. Seconds after American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the World Trade Center's north tower, our collective attentions fixed on the unthinkable scene. Hours stretched into...

We've witnessed, this summer, how fresh blood can rejuvenate a franchise entering its third installment. Weeks ago, Paramount handed the Mission: Impossible keys to J.J. Abrams (Alias) and clicked their heels when the inventive television...

Mystery novelist and Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen aimed his book Hoot at young adults, so it's fitting that the movie version ends up filling the widening generational gap at the cinemas. Adapted by television...

You are bound to leave Superman Returns buzzing about "the scene." It's our first real glimpse in the film of the Man of Steel in action, the first genuine indication that the spandex-clad savior has,...

Husband-and-wife filmmakers Jared and Jerusha Hess share a bizarre sense of humor, one that's difficult to categorize but apparently pretty popular. They know what amuses them, be it an eccentric sight gag or a particular...

Almost every major sport has a companion film, the one movie fans routinely point to as the definitive representation of their beloved competitive activity. Basketball has Hoosiers. Baseball divides camps between The Natural and Bull...

Audiences who peek Over the Hedge at DreamWorks' latest creation are destined to find a homogenized animated feature that's as polished as the pop-up suburban neighborhood that houses the bulk of the action. Blessed with...

Entertainment journalist Cal Fussman interviewed Tom Hanks for the June issue of Esquire. As part of an insightful feature, the two-time Oscar winner flipped through candid photographs taken on various film sets over the course...

Bob Munro (Robin Williams) has reached a difficult intersection on the road of life. Once, he played hero to his daughter Cassie (Joanna "JoJo" Levesque). Now she's an iPod-sporting, disgruntled teenager who'd rather hang with...

You will not find a worse movie in Walt Disney's animated canon than The Wild. At the very least, the hyperactive abomination helps us understand why the once-mighty studio shelled out $7.4 billion to acquire...

Liz Friedlander's Take the Lead is a marginally fictional biopic of Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas), the real-life New York dance instructor who found himself compelled to educate bad-seed, inner-city high school students. It is a...

Watching Chris Robinson's ATL - hip code slang for Atlanta (and just when I got comfortable calling it "Hot-lanta") - we should have no doubt that this coming-of-age story plays out on the streets of...

I hated Ice Age. The prehistoric road-trip comedy arrived in theaters on the heels of the superior Shrek and paled in comparison. Even judged on its own merits, Age moved like a two-ton glacier, suffered...

A handful of films released during the 2005 Oscar race raised important questions about the unchecked influence of government. Stephen Gaghan's Syriana probed the unholy marriage of business and politics in the Middle East. George...